[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 5 (2012-2013)

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Thanks Prelude! -Neko

This thread is a continuation of the previous threads, which started off with myself, asking questions about growing.
Many people helped out, and that is a large part of what this thread was created for, to pass on the help I received, and to help
others learn to grow.

Over time, I started to realize that almost everyone here has a completely different way from growing one another.
This is where the sharing comes in, how you grow, what you use, how do you care for your plants, what are your techniques?

Or, even if you are new to growing and have just recently started for the first time, this is a great place to ask questions.
We have a few people who regular this thread that have a VERY wide knowledge of growing and plants.
(You guys know who you are , and I can't
thank you guys enough for all of the time and knowledge you share with us, it is more appreciated than you will ever know.)


In previous threads, we have discussed many , many different ways of growing, and techniques.
Took some time, but I found Three of the Four Mega threads we have started, If you have the time to read through these threads, there
is much and more to learn. ( I do believe we are missing thread # 3 though)

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...ty-Growing-advice-tips-tricks-amp-experiences

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...xperiences?highlight=Community+Growing+advice

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/...ing-advice-tips-tricks-amp-experiences-Part-4

(Feel free to let me know if I left anything out, not sure if the Mods change the thread to make it MEGA, or if I just add the letters before the title)

Alright guys, so , back to where we were,
I have 10 plants outdoors.
6 Green Crack, 2 Pineapple Trainwreck, and 2 Ice berry (local strain)
I will be taking pictures very soon, before they start flowering (within the next month)

(I had mentioned in my previous, last post, that one of my plants seems to be stunted, very stunted, I believe who ever cloned it, may have gotten the rooting powder a bit too high on the stem, I saw when watering the plant today, that it was trying to root, where it wasn't covered with soil, so I will be removing it from the ground, replacing it with a larger plant, and putting the stunted plant back into a pot)

I am using Fox Farms soil. Feeding the plants about Once a week (Or once ever 1 1/2 weeks), with a pH from about 5.8-7.0 (Normally try to hit 6.3-6.5 though) (I've been using seaweed kelp and bonemeal for the plants I put into the ground)
Plants seem to be incredibly healthy compared to my previous grows.
Though we do have a very small ammount of bugs messing up the leaves, I can see many white spots on the leaves, and a few small holes in the lower leaves.
I was hoping to be able to avoid spraying pesticide on my plants, but, if I do have to spray, I would much rather do it BEFORE flowering, rather than during.

I know we've had this discussion plenty of times, but, what would work well to kill of leaf hoppers, and spider mites? I have some spray that's made from rosemary, but it hasn't seemed to do much in the past. I have some pretty strong bug spray that kills near everything, but, I do try to avoid using them, as the plants absorb some of the chemicals from what I read. (Pyrethrum didn't sound too bad though, only problem is , says not to use when temperatures reach over 90 degrees, well, its about 105+ here, and It's not going down for another month or two, so what would be safe, could I spray at night? Or is it the residue from the oils that burns up the plant in sunlight?)

Also, I bought some new pots, which are square, they line up to give me the most space that I can get under the light, I will try to find a picture of them, or take a picture of the set up in my grow room in the next day or two.

Happy Growing Everyone

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I'm pretty confused as to why the smaller plant won't root properly, or start growing, maybe when i dig it up, I will take good look at the roots and see whats wrong with it.

This is almost certainly because you didn't prepare the soil right I would imagine. Did you test the pH? If so and it was out, did you add dolomite lime to sweeten the soil if the pH was too low? Did you dig over the soil with a garden fork prior to planting?

Another weird thing, out of 12 plants, I have all under 16-17 hours of light.
One of them started to flower, and WILL NOT stop flowering , though its not really time to be flowering? Confused the hell out of me.

That's not unusual at all. It could be a semi-autoflowering strain, meaning it will flower under a larger number of hours of light than usual. Or it could be a straight autoflowering genotype, as the autoflowering trait is recessive and so will only pop up occasionally unless it breeds true.

Damn AE, nice looking seeds, and bud. I will be taking pictures of my Northern Lights #5 that just finished drying. I'll also try to get some pictures of my plants outdoors (for some reason, the camera doesn't want to take pictures well when its so bright outside)

Thanks mate, some have already started germinating so I'm looking forward to see how they do. Should be interesting and completely different from anything in any seedbank! Good to hear you harvested your NL#5. Do you have any ideas about what you'd like to grow next?

I'm growing a couple of interesting strains at the moment (just germinated). I'm doing Lambo aka Rambo by TH Seeds and Blue Dream Haze by Cali Connections as well as a strain called 'Malana', which is used to produce the infamous Malana Cream charas that people say they would kill to get their hands on. I think I'm going to pop some of my Mr Nice 'Spice' seeds as well since I can't find any grow reports of this strain at all and I'm anxious to see how it does. It's a cross between a Hawaiian indica and a Hawaiian sativa apparently.

Hey AE, how was the quality of that ISO hash? I've got tons of old bud, that I dont know what to do with, I don't want to cook it ALL into butter. (Just made 6 sticks last week with 2 1/2 ozs) .

I've just finished drying my purple haze x panama. The buds were quite delicate and less dense than indicas or hybrids but after making some more iso with it after a few days in a jar, it knocked my socks off. The strain transforms after curing so it'll be interesting to see how it smokes after a month or two in the jars. I plan to do a run through my Sprungbags (they're like Bubblebags but cheaper because they're not a famous brand, however they're just as good) to make bubble hash. God I love making ice hash!

How much alcohol do you use ratio wise compared to the bud.
That stuff looked mighty tasty.
I can only get 91% iso , wonder if that would be quality, or just not worth doing.

What I did was get a jam jar, fill it two thirds with the bud loosely packed and then filled with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol for just 30 secs and then I strained it through two coffee filters as quickly as possible. You can get pure isopropyl alcohol from some electronics stores since it's used to clean the copper on electronic circuit boards. Definitely don't use 91% iso, the 99.9% stuff is much better but you must make sure there are no impurities. I would ask on an american cannabis board since they'll be able to point you in the right direction for where to get the stuff.

And AE, Ill be your tester

Check your PMs.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Well, I do have new plants, Green Crack and Pineapple Trainwreck. So far they seem to be more sativa than indica. I say this because I have never seen a plant grow so tall so quickly, and be so lanky, rather than small and bushy.

As for the clones, Everything rooted properly, pH was at 6.3-6.5, My guess is that rooting hormone got too high on the stem, and the plant attempted to root where they were exposed to light. (Never seen it happen before, but when I watered it today, I saw some dead roots on the top half of the rockwool. No biggie, Im just going to replace is with another. )

I'm pretty excited to be trying sativa for a change, it's such a different type of grow, its weird. Ill have to get pictures tomorrow, I don't have work, so I believe I should be able to get it done for once :D
And so far as I know, the clones that I have are true breeds, the person I got them from is very reliable, owns his own hydroponic shop, and Medical Marijuana shop. I guess that doesn't quite make him legit, but I've known him for 3 years, and a family member of mine who grows knows him as well, and I've never heard anything but positive reports.

Is the hash pretty harsh smoke? last time I made ISO, I didn't know what I was doing, used 71% or something, and it was so harsh on my lungs/throat. Never tried it again, lol.
I do know a Computer shop owner, who has some type of license to purchase computer equipment and a large discount. I'll talk to him and see if he can't get ahold of anything thanks for the info

And as for that odd, little flowering clone, well, it was supposed to be the same plant as the rest, Green Crack (God I hate that name, but supposedly the legit plant is pretty damn good) And they all seemed to grow at the same rate, it was just odd that it started to flower while it was only 8 inches tall, lol. It's alright though, I had bought too many clones for my grow indoors, so losing these two plants to stuff like this is just another learning experience
Can't help but wonder why it happened though. Flowering in early July outdoors, poor plant, so confused about what she should do.

Good luck with that blue dream your growing , down hear everyone it's pretty popular, and the proper growers can grow some seriously good bud off of that strain. (I have no doubt you will be able to do so . )
I've never heard of Malana Cream, I'll defiantly be looking forward to see how that turns out

 

[Artificial Emotion]

For me iso hash isn't harsh at all. Neither is ice hash or BHO in my experience, but of course there's the usual disclaimer of YMMV. As for the isopropyl alcohol, if you can't use it you can always use other solvents such as acetone.

You're lucky you're able to grow Green Crack. It gets rave reviews so I've always wanted to try it ever since I first heard about it. Apparently it's skunk #1 crossed with some uknown indica. I'd love to know the exact lineage, it would definitely be interesting to know.

Here's a pic of some of the notorious Malana Cream:

NSFW:

 

[LuGoJ]

Thanks Prelude! -Neko

I know we've had this discussion plenty of times, but, what would work well to kill of leaf hoppers, and spider mites? I have some spray that's made from rosemary, but it hasn't seemed to do much in the past. I have some pretty strong bug spray that kills near everything, but, I do try to avoid using them, as the plants absorb some of the chemicals from what I read. (Pyrethrum didn't sound too bad though, only problem is , says not to use when temperatures reach over 90 degrees, well, its about 105+ here, and It's not going down for another month or two, so what would be safe, could I spray at night? Or is it the residue from the oils that burns up the plant in sunlight?)

Also, I bought some new pots, which are square, they line up to give me the most space that I can get under the light, I will try to find a picture of them, or take a picture of the set up in my grow room in the next day or two.

Happy Growing Everyone

I don’t grow weed BUT I had a huge leafhopper problem on my vegetables. What finally ended up working for me was using neem oil. The stuff I bought was called K Neem by a company called Organica, it’s a mixture of neem oil and a fungicide. You mix it up with water in a spray bottle and spray all of the leaves(top and under) when the sun is going down, apparently the sun burns away whatever is in the oil that kills the bugs. Spraying leaves at night can lead to fungus so that’s why I chose that brand with the fungicide already included. I believe neem oil is beneficial to plants for other reasons but I don’t know the specifics.

I also tried ladybugs but they wouldn’t stick around and all left each day after I released them.

*edit*

I started by spraying every night and now i only spray every 3 or 4 days and they don't dare return.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

I know we've had this discussion plenty of times, but, what would work well to kill of leaf hoppers, and spider mites? I have some spray that's made from rosemary, but it hasn't seemed to do much in the past. I have some pretty strong bug spray that kills near everything, but, I do try to avoid using them, as the plants absorb some of the chemicals from what I read. (Pyrethrum didn't sound too bad though, only problem is , says not to use when temperatures reach over 90 degrees, well, its about 105+ here, and It's not going down for another month or two, so what would be safe, could I spray at night? Or is it the residue from the oils that burns up the plant in sunlight?)


Happy Growing Everyone

Sorry I missed this, I thought I would give my two pence for what it's worth. For spidermites get a 'mectin' type acaricide which kills mites, including spidermites. Abamectin or ivermectin are two good examples. Also I would use organic neem seed oil. As long as you spray this regularly it will stop a whole range of insects from munching on your plants. It is important to spray it often though and make sure it is organic to avoid chemical residues which are byproducts of the manufacturing process. You can get the cold pressed organic neem seed oil online relatively cheaply. The way it works is it stops the insects from feeding when they consume it and they eventually run out of energy and die.

This is how I personally would deal with the issue. Both those products I've mentioned are pretty fool proof and I would recommend them over messing about with products which may or may not work.

edit: sorry Lugo also has recommended the neem seed oil too. I missed that.

 

[Blaze420_]

sorry if this is a silly question but how/when can you tell weather its male or female?

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Thank you Lugo, and AE.
I will be going with neem oil to see how it works. Is it alright to use in high heat situations? I've noitced that some pesticides say not to use over 90degrees.
And it's been about 105 out around here.
So far, what I've seen from these green crack is unbelievable, they grow so fast, and are so healthy, maybe that's just the sativa half of the plant, I can't imagine a full sativa, lol.
But yeah, the guy I got them from said there had been some false green crack going around for 2-3 years here, and he got his hands on some of the real stuff, so I am very excited about that. I don't think I've ever got to try a F1 hybrid. (Is it even a F1 hybrid)?
Pineapple trainwreck seems pretty interesting too

As for telling male , from female Blaze420, after your plants start to put out multiple nodes, they will start to show preflowers.
Males typicalls seem to look like a tiny little ball(or multiple balls), that doesn't have pistils.

http://hempembassy.net/modules/content/index.php?id=37

This webpage should help you determine what you are looking for, Good luck

That Malana looks delicous , and reading about that Kumaoni , that euphoria discussed in the description of that strain sounds
like something that will be VERY interesting to try .

 

[Artificial Emotion]

It'll be fine in hot weather. Just make sure to keep reapplying it as one application won't be enough.

As for the Green Crack being an F1 hybrid, it won't be a true F1 cross, no. In breeders terms there will be plenty of heterosis and so it'll be vigorous. But virtually no breeders even have the resources to produce true F1 hybrids, bar ones like Shanti (Mr Nice seeds) for example.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Alright, well I sprayed two 1/4 portions of the large plants to see how it reacts tomorrow, just to make sure.

Finally got some pictures.

Lost alot of quality in the resolution when it changed, should I upload as 1024?

The smaller, new clone in the ground, planted next to the small one, were both planted at the same time.
I'm taking it out tomorrow, and replacing it with one of the clones you see, and you can see the plant that flowered.

What would be an example of an F1 Hybrid/Cross, how do people get them.

Do the pictures work correctly?

NSFW:

 

[marie420]

What is the future of medical marijuana in Michigan?

I read an article on future of medical marijuana in Michigan, in this article author says in Michigan, it’s legal to grow 12 medical marijuana plants if you have a doctor’s recommendation, state residency, and a Michigan medical marijuana card. Is it true? Is there any profit of growing marijuana at home?

 

[Seyer]

Yes, Michigan does have legal medial marijuana. Benefits of growing your own are that you actually get to grow it and not go by someones word on the growth quality of the plant.

Anyways, moving to CD.

 

[Chainer]

Sorry, we don't discuss the legality of cannabis here at CD. I'd actually think Drug Culture would be the place for that, but I guess not!

We do however discuss legal growing in our mega grow thread. I will direct you there, you may even find other people in your area who do grow and can offer first person advice and information.

----> merging

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

I dont know the legality, but,
I do know there are many benefits to growing at home.

You aren't just having to take someones word for what your getting.
Ultimately, you are in much more control of the finished product you will be getting.
You would be controlling nutrients, light, water, etc.
You would know what insects were on your plant and if any pesticides were used (Depending on where you are from, this is a big problem in Cali , alot of people are just growing bud to sell, spraying with harmful pesticides, which the plant absorbs and then you smoke it, very bad. Then you have people who get pests, do nothing about them, and sell you bud infested with mites and bug poo, on top of that, many growers don't even flush anymore, they just try to get product on the market , as quickly as possible to make money.)

I've noticed myself that it is just 100% more satisfying smoking your own bud that you grew. Hard to explain.

 

[Doctor_Ew420]

This may be somewhat off topic, I apologize if it is, I am just having a hard time finding a solid opinion.

I am looking at buying some grow lights, (I would prefer new 600w lights) Since new lights are pretty expensive I started looking on craigslist/kijiji

I found this: http://ontario.kijiji.ca/c-ViewAdLargeImage?AdId=391433282

It appears to be (2) 400 watt setups. Bulbs, ballasts, sockets and reflectors. If you look at the pictures you see that they were made in 1998 so that is possibly why there is only a *snip* price tag on the two full systems. The seller seems unsure if both ballasts are HPS or not. There is a picture of one of the ballasts that states it IS a HPS but I can't tell about the other... Can anyone tell?

Does it seem like this is a good deal or should I just consider buying new?

When I start growing once I become legal I want to be able to grow the best of the best. New lights?

Also, the place they are selling from is quite the distance from me so I want to make sure everything looks good and worth the time/effort/cash. Thanks.

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

lol, no price discussion, you might receive a little slap for that.

For that price though, if it includes, bulb, ballast, hood, I don't see why not.
Do you plan on getting new equipment in the future?
Are they digital ballasts? (If not, do they have a ballast for HPS/MH)

Kind of look like MH bulbs to me, (my HPS are long and slender though, so I'm not sure)
I find it odd, the owner/grower, doesn't know what he has.
Are you sure they are working?
(After looking at the pictures, both bulbs read as 'Metal Halide' , so,
you might want to find out if the ballast can support HPS.

If all else fails, you can probably pick up a 600watt , hood/ballast/light for about about 1/3 more than what you are already paying.

Do my pictures work on my earlier post?
Not sure if anyone can see them :/

 

[^Xayo]

Visited the outdoor spot yesterday. Its pretty sad but hey its the first year I'm doing this:
Snails are a HUGE problem, nearly every plant has been munched on, I lost 6 plants because I planted them straight before the weather went on 2 week monsune mode, they got eaten as a whole, only weedy smelling sticks remaining

NSFW:

My notes for next year:

start vegging ealier
dont leave planting to someone who has no idea of plants (my friend planted them straight into the shadows doh)
spend some money on snail protection
replace/mix fresh soil into the ground

 

[Artificial Emotion]

That looks like a magnetic ballast to me. Ask him if it takes both MH and HPS. It's a good deal anyhow, I would go for it. Don't forget to get a contactor and a good segmental timer to switch your lights on and off. You can't just plug the lights straight into a timer as it will fuse the contacts and possibly cause a fire so you need to use the contactor as it allows you to be able to switch large loads.

Prelude, sorry I didn't have time to say, yes the pics worked. Looking really good!! It looks like you're definitely going to get a decent harvest. Just make sure you keep on top of pests (including animals as well as insects!) and diseases.

Xayo looks like you have the right idea. Here in the UK at least, if you don't take precautions against slugs and snails they will eat your plants, no question about it. Let your failure be a cautionary tale for everyone else! Organic slug pellets applied regularly as well as putting a circular piece of plastic or metal covered in copper take around your stems will prevent them from being able to get to the plants.

I'm just about to visit my plot (the one that survived the rabbits!) to see how it's doing. Hopefully it's still there!

 

[Prelude2TragedyII]

Yeah, Im starting to get a bit nervous though, as one of these plants is little over half way the size of the fence. Im trying to figure out something to where I can tame it , and keep it from growing too much higher, that huge ass plant literally grows about 2 inches a day. Crazy.

Pretty plants Xayo, hope they do well
What strain is it? How many do you have left? Just the 4? or is there more than 4 in that pics?

(Hah, wow, I need to find a new site to upload to, I didn't see them ADVERTISING porn when I was uploading the picture, hah, thats awful. Sorry guys)

 

[Artificial Emotion]

Here's the site that's survived (just) after being attacked by rabbits. I've rabbit-proofed it now so hopefully it should start doing well.

NSFW:

NSFW:

Here's the second site before it was destroyed by rabbits. RIP.

NSFW: